"The once-in-a-millennium Pegasus meteor shower is forecast to appear over our city in three to five days' time. At that moment, members of the public who select suitable viewing locations, will be able to witness this extraordinary spectacle. It is estimated by experts that the optimal viewing point will be near White Lake in District X, where the entire meteor shower can be observed from start to finish. AAC News reminds you to exercise caution during viewing."
The television model is a little outdated, yet the presenter's voice delivering the weather report still come through without distortion.
'What a piece of rubbish news!' Blair mutters, grabbing the remote control and switching off the television. He doesn't believe the meteor shower would actually materialize.
Blair is an ordinary high school boy, standing about 1.77 metres tall—neither particularly tall nor particularly short. His looks are at best passable, neither very ugly nor very handsome. During his past seventeen years of life, nothing especially noteworthy has ever happened to him.
Every morning at half past seven, he drags his weary body and rides to school three kilometers away from his home. The route takes him through a street in the middle of the town, past a bank, assorted shops, and supermarkets. The unchanging streetscape mirrors his life: dull and unremarkable.
Each afternoon, as the bell nears, he'd count down the minutes and seconds. each ticking away is like a countdown to the world's liberation. When the bell rings, he'd suppress his excitement, swiftly packing his books into his satchel before dashing out of the classroom.
He has few friends at school, yet no one bullies him either. He is like a transparent figure, only when the teachers take attendance, they will remember: "Oh, there is such a boy in our class".
At times, he finds life tedious, and fantasizes about becoming a superhero like in the movies—soaring through skies, traversing lands. When disasters strike, he will step forward, bravely confront the villain, and ultimately defeat the antagonist who seeks to destroy the world. Yet thinking twice, he realised he was fortunate to have both parents who fulfilled their duties. So he don't have to work during high school to support his family like some of his classmates, who are burdened with an alcoholic father or a prostitute mother.
Blair's household comprises four members: his father, mother and a younger sister.
'My brother is a thoroughly dull individual,' his sister would often remark.
Indeed, his personality appears as ordinary and unremarkable as his existence from the point of other people. Although his age is not old, his lifestyle and mind resemble a sophisticated elder. He is utterly uninterested in matters beyond his immediate sphere.
His father's assessment for him is: 'A boy beyond his years, a man of great respectability.'
Blair himself finds it rather amusing. He is simply a bit of a slacker, without grand ambitions, and pays little heed to others' opinions.
Apart from attending school, his sole regular pursuit is fishing.
Fishing requires little physical exertion. Watching the float bobbing on the water's surface helps him clear his mind, allowing him to drift into solitary reverie.
Moreover, he cherishes being by the water. Even if he sits all day without catching a single fish, he will feel a sense of comfort and contentment as long as observing the river's gentle flow past the banks, the ripples created by the wind on the water, and the ripples caused by fish leaping out of the water.
It is generally regarded that someone like him would enter an ordinary university after high school, engage in an unremarkable major, graduate with a degree just above the pass mark, and then embark on a mundane working life much like his high school days.
But all that changed completely one day.
.........
On 21st December 2025, he made his customary trip to the riverbank east of the town to fish.
Last night, he dreamed of landing a fish weighing over ten kilograms, which left him exhilarated all morning.
At 9:30, he set off from home.
'Perhaps today will bring good fortune,' he mused to himself.
'Pedal faster, it is close to the riverbank,' he urged himself, accelerating his bicycle towards the destination.
Just as he approached a junction near the riverside, disaster struck!
'CRASH!' A deafening roar echoed, followed by billowing smoke and dust. The collision's clatter alarmed the townspeople, who soon gathered in a crowd. Had anyone been looking down from the sky, they would have witnessed, just two minutes prior, a blindingly bright flame tearing through the heavens with immense force. It left a long trail in the air before crashing to the ground, leaving a huge crater. At the bottom of that crater lay Blair, barely clinging to life.
In a state of near coma, Blair seemed to hear the shouts of the townspeople, the wail of the ambulance siren, and his parents' sobs. The immense pain left him utterly unable to respond.
Was this the end?
He had once imagined meeting his end at his desk at work, startling a colleague who would discover him the next morning in a flurry of commotion. Or perhaps he'd be struck down by a sudden, relentless illness, lying in a hospital bed, and anxiously awaiting the doctor's final verdict.
Yet life proved so unpredictable. It delivered an overwhelming outcome totally unforeseen and made him utterly unprepared.
A meteorite from tens of thousands miles away plummeted from the heavens, landing squarely upon his body.
"Fucking the stupid life!"
Blair uttered his final thought, then his consciousness slowly faded into nothingness, and he died away.